Whose sport?

“I’ll have my sport,” said the 18th century Dickensian English bear-baiter. “I’ll have my sport!”

Well, bear baiting as a practice in old England has long since disappeared. Of course, a modern version of it exists even today across the U.S. But the sentiment, “I’ll have my sport” is alive and well in 21st century Michigan!

Despite at least a quarter of a million signatures representing united opposition to the sport of wolf hunting the Michigan Natural Resources Commission and the governor are hell-bent for putting Michigan in that camp of grossly misguided states – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming – which recently experienced the collective slaughter of just under one thousand wolves (sadly, among this number was a collared, fecund and scientifically respected female who had the misfortune to step just far enough outside of Yellowstone’s man-made protected area to make it a legitimate target for a local sportsman with a high-powered rifle.

In seconds she was dispatched to trophy hood! Forget complex pack hierarchy and disruption, forget pups, forget everything we’ve come to understand about ecosystems and our fellow creatures in the 21st century.

“I’ll have my sport,” says the Michigan political power-structure. “I’ll have my “sport!”